Sudan: China working with West
2008-10-27 10:36
Alaa Shahine
Khartoum - China, the biggest foreign investor in Sudan, said on Sunday it was trying to work with Western powers to lessen the fallout from war crimes charges filed against Sudan's president.
Liu Guijin, the special Chinese envoy on Darfur, said he held talks in the United States, Britain and France to discuss the charges brought by the International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo.
He accused Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir in July of masterminding a campaign of genocide in Sudan's Darfur.
"I used those opportunities of visits to Western capitals to have consultations with our partners in the West as how we could work together to seek a kind of a softer landing for the charge," Liu told reporters in Khartoum after talks at Sudan's Foreign Ministry.
Sudan, China and regional powerhouse South Africa have warned a formal indictment of Bashir could damage the stalled Darfur peace process, which aims to end five years of conflict.
The Arab League and African Union have tried to get the UN Security Council to suspend a possible ICC arrest warrant against Bashir.
China - which has veto power in the Security Council with Russia, Britain, France and the United States - says it would support such a move. Human rights groups say China has failed to do enough to stop the bloodshed in Darfur and has violated a UN arms embargo on the region.
Asked how Sudan could convince the United Nations to intervene, Liu said the West wanted Khartoum to speed up the full deployment of a UN-African Union peacekeeping force in Darfur.
With fewer than 10 000 soldiers and police, the force is currently far short of its promised strength of 26 000. Western diplomats, UN officials and human rights groups say that is due to obstruction by Sudan, UN bureaucracy and a shortage of helicopters and other transportation equipment.
Liu said Sudan has made progress on resolving issues such as speeding up the clearance from Sudanese ports of goods needed by the force, securing flying and landing rights for UN helicopters and planes, and granting visas for peacekeepers.
International experts estimate that 200 000 people have died and 2.5 million others have fled their homes since the Darfur conflict flared in 2003, when mostly African rebels took up arms against the Arab government, charging it with neglect.
The government puts the death toll as 10 000.
China's Liu urged rebel groups to hold talks with the government to advance the political process. Western powers have said that is key if the UN Security Council is to consider suspending the ICC arrest warrant against Bashir.
"The political forces have to realise that there is no military way (to solve) the problem," he Liu. The rebels boycotted a national initiative Bashir launched this month, saying it was a smoke screen to help him avoid an ICC warrant.
Liu also said the world should recognise Sudan's inquiry into alleged crimes committed in Darfur by Ali Kushayb, a militia leader wanted by the ICC on war crimes charges. Khartoum says it does not recognise the international court.
- Reuters